A BALLOT system is set to revolutionise the set up of the Melbourne Wholesale Market.
Yesterday 110 wholesalers took part in a series of ballots at the current Footscray Rd market to determine which store location they would have in the new Epping market.Minister for Major Projects Denis Napthine said the move was a historic step in the selection of store locations at the market.
Dr Napthine said the opening of the new market, scheduled for 2014/2015, was now clearly on the horizon for market tenants.
The ballot process for storeholders is the first of three such events with similar processes to take place, with those for fruit and vegetable standholders and flower market standholders to come in early 2013.
The relocation has been in the works since the previous Labor Government decision to move the market in 2004, Dr Napthine said.
Storeholders selected their new store locations from 74 large stores, 30 medium stores and 40 small stores, through a transparent ballot process conducted by an independent expert and overseen by a probity adviser.
Dr Napthine said many of the businesses present at yesterday's ballot had a long and intergenerational history at the market and were involved in the 1968 ballot when the market moved from the Queen Victoria Market site to the current facility at Footscray.
